Thank you, President.
Akahata makes this statement on behalf of the Sexual Rights Initiative.
We receive with deep concern this report from the Special Rapporteur.
The report establishes three criteria for recognizing women as mothers in her report. None of them acknowledges the motherhood of the lesbian and bisexual women who were not pregnant with their own children but who form co-maternal families in which their lesbian or bisexual partners were pregnant. This is different from being an adoptive mother.
It is a reality specific to lesbian and bisexual women, recognized by some States that base parenthood on the formal declaration of the procreational will in all cases of assisted human reproduction. There is no adoption procedure in these cases and the co-motherhood of both women is legally recognized in birth certificates, with the same rights and responsibilities.
This is also in protection of the best interest of their children. We think the report could have investigated more about the challenges most lesbian and bisexual women forming families face across the world, including reproductive violence during pregnancy and delivery against both mothers, and should have included co-motherhood as a way of becoming a mother.
States should take all necessary steps to respect and support mothers in all their diversity.
Thank you.